related

related

When playing Monopoly with friends and family, the ritual of determining who gets what piece is almost as important as the ritual of determining what happens when you land on free parking. Will you play as the race car, the dog, or the top hat, or will you get stuck with the wheelbarrow? Well, thanks to a new initiative from Hasbro, you might not be ANY of those in the near future.

Running from January 10th through the 30th, the "Monopoly Token Madness Vote" offers fans the opportunity to decide which eight pieces will be included with the game going forward. Participants have more than 50 options to choose from, including the existing eight pieces as well as new options like a money clip, a typewriter, and a sail boat. Of course, since it's not the 1930s anymore, there are some more modern choices like a monster truck, a hashtag, and five different emoji faces, making it a foregone conclusion that at least one of the new pieces will be an emoji.

This isn't the first time Monopoly's mixed up its game pieces: the unpopular Iron was swapped out for a crowd-pleasing cat in 2013, and we haven't looked back since. Still, cats and emoji are hardly the same thing, and the idea of playing Monopoly against a winky-kissy-face has plenty of people up in arms. The game you know and love is about to be bastardized and cheapened with an injection of pop culture that reeks of cynical cash-grabbery. Is nothing sacred?!

Except...

If we're being honest, Monopoly's been a cynical cash grab for a while now. If you want proof, just look at the myriad licensed versions of the game that have been sold over the years: Star Wars Monopoly, Marvel Comics Monopoly,Super Mario Bros Monopoly, Pokémon Monopoly... the list goes on and on. Regardless of what eight pieces are selected at the end of this "Token Voting Madness" event, rest assured that merch-happy Hasbro will be selling a "Classic Monopoly" with all the old pieces included. Not the Iron, though; nobody likes that thing.

Gianni Jaccoma is an editor for Thrillist, and he's still playing a Monopoly game from 1997. Follow his progress on Twitter @gjaccoma